The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-09-16
The Creole Planters Home.
A SPACIOUS MANSION BUILT FOR con Oct
BEAUTIES OF AN INTERIOR.

A SPACIOUS MANSION BUILT FOR con 'oET.
BEAUTIES OF AN INTERIOR.
The creole sugar planter built his
house for summer comfort. He made
it with spacious chambers and wide
halls, many Widowed and with great
doors, and then surrounded it with
broad galleries to ward off the summer
sun. Although these plantation man.
sions may not have any special archi-
tectural beauty, viewed by modern
building lights, yet they please the eye,
and are imposing by reason of their
size and dignity. Many of them are
built around ar open court, insuring
plenty of light and air for each room.
About an old house of this kind is an
atmosphere of large comfort and easy
going content. There is no sparing of
ground in inclosing the yard indeed,
its dimensions All large enough to war
rant the name of park. Always the
house is built far back in the yard,
partly to escape the tooth of the tawny
lion that chafes and frets and gnaws
the levees that would confine him be-
tween their banks. Every now and
then the monster Mississippi makes a
hideous meal of some fair garden.
These houses are sure to be well
shaded with luxuriant foliage. Pc.
cans and live oaks, orange and lemon
trees, Grape myrtle and oleander, and a
wilderness of sweet smelling shrubs
adorn the grounds while roses and jas
mines riot everywhere. In the rear of
this wilderness of flowers lie the ve2e-
table and fruit gardens, the poultry
yard, and dove cots musical with the
soft cooings of innumerable doves.
When the creole bulded his house in
"the city'-New Orleans--there was
some difference in structure. The
house opened on the street, and a gray
stone arched entrance gave admission
to the porte cochere, by which the in
terror was reached. High walls de-
fined the limits of this territory, defy
ing the scrutiny of possible prying
neighbors. The French quarter abounds
to-day in these old houses, the outside
giving no hint of the beauty of the in
terror The dingy desert of tagged
yard smiles and blossoms at every few
steps into oases of brilliant flowers and
shrubs. Along the length of the car
den wall runs raised bed of rich soil
and here riot aud clambor tangle of
creeping vines that thrust myriad fin
gers into every crack and Granny, and
each in rivalry of its neighbors racing
headlong to the top to wave trium.
phantly aloft, in token of victory, long
pennons Of green.
Bubbling, sparkling fountains rise
and fall in the sunlight, and in shelter
ed hooks one catches gllmpses of great
yellow water jars big enough to hold
the famous Forty of the "Arabian
Nights" These jars were once used
to hold the drinking water of the fam
ily--Mississippi water that has been
filtered, ana which the creole preferred
to rain water.
Tho balconies of such a house are
transformed into cool arbors by vines
which lay their long fingers upon every
thing within reach. Behind the vines
in improvised beds, grow and blithely
bloom many bright hued flowers
: Gagged birds trill and pipe and chirl
and warble, seeming to have lost al
sense of having once been free wilt
things. The salons which open upol
these galleries are lofty, spaciou
1 apartments, shut off from each othe
by means of great mahogany folding
4 doors. The door knobs of quaint de
: sign and curious tracery of surface ar
r of pure silver. Much handsome vain
! scotlng of rare woods is to be seen, an
5 the beautiful floors of black cypres
7 were the pride of the creole housekeer
er, who in the old days rarely used cal
- pets, but preferred handsome mats an
i rugs of rich, brilliant colors. The ful
}. niture of these old houses was costl
and handsome, the most of it hsvin
f been imported, as the owners held th
/, American taste of that day in contemp
: Some families yet retain their old ful
d nishings, but poverty has forced man
l. to sell them.
@ Nowhere else in America are to /
found the spacious canopied beds, tn
y vast armories with mirrored doors, tt
quaint spindle legged dressing table
r, the massive sideboards and carvin
y tables, the huge dining tables, the a.
7. tique cabinets, rich with carving an
n dark with age, mosaic tables and dra,
a ing room suites of the time of Lou
ie Quatorze, as are to he seen in son
1t creole houses in town and countr
These memorials are dear to the
d possessors, who cling to the fashion
t. of their ancestors in wholly un-Ame
can way. Their homes handed dow
K from one generation to another, vii
* such changes as are only absolute
IN necessary to the inmates, are their me
sacred possessions, about which clust
Il their fondest memories and hop,
/ Even the creole who lives in rent
house merely makes the aoquaintan
III of the movers cart, clinging with lii
~ pet like tenacity to its walls, sometim
even unto the second generation.
The creole housekeeper drapes /
ut windows and doors with soft fowl
curtains, rarely using the stiff, hideo
en- Holland shades. She believes in p
3 /; there's, and by means of these a lar
in room can be cunningly furnished w
er the most private little hooks imag
id able. She has not yet been convert
to the passion for bric-a-brac, and |
walls are not tattooed with the mu
1t; tude of meaningless decorations Il
is strain the eye in the average mode
drawing room.-Ha,pers Bazar.